Alec dropped down in the chair next to Penelope, "wha'cha you doin'?" He looked over the computer screen and didn't have a chance to catch anything before it went black.
"Nothing," Penelope said shortly, standing and walking away from the computers desk.
Alec's face twisted with confusion. "What the hell girl?"
She turned on him with fire in her eyes, Alec should have kept his mouth shut. Penelope was in a mood fit to be tied, "what the hell have you been doing?" She started pacing restlessly and Alec didn't have a chance to respond before she started off again. "You've been hacking people and stealing their money. How could you do something like that? What has gotten into your mind, child?"
He stared at her in disbelief, "how do you know that?"
Penelope huffed and her face grew a bit more red, "I know what a hack from you looks like. Do you have any idea how shocking it is to be hired by someone to find out who entered their system only to find out its the man you live with."
"Penelope I can explain-"
"I don't want some excuse from you. I didn't teach you how to do this stuff so you could steal from innocent people. Damn it, Alec, what did you do with Mick Jagger's identity and why did you need all that money?"
Alec stammered a moment, "I...I just wanted... I wanted to celebrate, y'know? For making it through Caltech and all...that." Alec came to a weak stop. Penelope's eyes hadn't soften at all.
She stalked up to him, "don't ever use the things I taught you to do illegal things. It's not why I taught them to you." Penelope threw up her hands and for a split second Alec thought she might smack him, and not in a playful way.
"Why are you so mad, Penelope?" Alec opened and closed his fist, trying not to cross his arms over his chest. It would have felt childish.
Penelope sighed, "it's a dangerous world we play in. We can't take it lightly, the small things we do. What do you think would happen if we were caught looking around the Pentagon's servers, no matter that we didn't actually do anything. Come on, Alec, be real." He didn't say anything for a minute and Penelope huffed.
He knew she was right, Penelope usually was about these things. It made Alec wonder what she knew, how much trouble she was in before he met her four years ago. He hadn't ever found out what she was doing in that cafe, hadn't really cared. He'd wanted to learn, anything before that hadn't mattered.
"You've been in trouble before."
Penelope looked away, ashamed. "I've done things I'm not proud of."
Alec stepped up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry," he pulled her in and hugged her tightly. "It will never happen again, I promise."
She pulled away and held his cheek, looking into his eyes. "Don't make promises you can't keep." And Alec had a feeling that she was telling the truth more than he thought he was.